The shutil Module

The shutil module helps you automate
copying files and directories. This saves the steps of opening, reading,
writing and closing files when there is no actual processing, simply
moving files.

shutil.copy
(src, dest
)

Copy data and mode bits, basically the unix command cp
src dst. If dest is a directory, a
file with the same base name as src is
created. If dest is a full file name, this
is the destination file.

shutil.copyfile (src,
dest )

Copy data from src to
dest. Both names must be files.

shutil.copytree (src,
dest )

Recursively copy the entire directory tree rooted at
src to dest.
dest must not already exist. Errors are
reported to standard output.

shutil.rmtree (path
)

Recursively delete a directory tree rooted at
path.

Note that this allows us to build Python applications that are
like shell scripts. There are a lot of advantages to writing Python
programs rather than shell scripts to automate mundane tasks.

First, Python programs are easier to read than shell scripts. This
is because the language did not evolve in way that emphasized tersness;
the shell script languages use a minimum of punctuation, which make them
hard to read.

Second, Python programs have a more sophisticated programming
model, with class definitions, and numerous sophisticated data
structures. The shell works with simple argument lists; it has to resort
to running the test or expr
programs to process strings or numbers.

Finally, Python programs have direct access to more of the
operating system's features than the shell. Generally, many of the basic
GNU/Linux API calls are provided via innumerable small programs. Rather
than having the shell run a small program to make an API call, Python
can simply make the API call.